CLEAVELAND'S PETITION To His highness the Lord POTECTOR.  
May it please your Highness,  
Ruler's within the Circle of their Government have a claim to that which is said of the Deity, They have their centre everywhere, and their Circumference nowhere. It is in this confidence that I address to your Highness, as knowing no place in the Nation is so remote, as not to share in the ubiquity of your care; no Prison so close, as to shut me up from partaking of your influence. My Lord, it is my misfortune, that after ten years of retirement from being engaged in the difference of the State, having wound myself up in a private recess, and my comportment to the public, being so inoffensive, that in all this time, neither fears nor jealousies have scrupled at our Actions: Being about three months since at Norwich, I was fetched with a Guard before the Commissioners, and sent Prisoner to Yarmouth, and if it be not a new offence to make inquiry wherein I offended (for hitherto my faults are kept as close as my person,) I am induced to believe, that next to the adherence to the Royal party, the cause of my confinement is the narrowness of my estate; for none stand committed whose estate can bail them; I only am the Prisoner, who have no Acres to be my hostage. Now if my poverty be Criminal (with Reverence be it spoken,) I must implead your Highness, whose victorious Arms have reduced me to it, as accessary to my guilt. Let it suffice my Lord, that the calamity of the War hath made us poor; do not punish us for it! Who ever did Penance for being ravished? Is it not enough that we are stripped so bare, but it must be made in order to a severer Lash? must our scars be engraven with new wounds? must we first be made Cripples, then beaten with our own Crutches? Poverty! if it be a fault, it is its own punishment; Who suffers for it more, pays Use upon use. I beseech your Highness put some bounds to our overthrow, and do not pursue the chase to the other World; Can your thunder be leveled so low as our groveling Conditions? Can that towering Spirit that hath quarried upon Kingdoms make a stoop at us, who are the rubbish of those ruins? Methinks! I hear your former achievements interceding with you not to sully your glories, with trampling on the prostrate, nor Clog the wheels of your Chariot with so degenerous a Triumph. The most renowned Heroes have ever with such tenderness cherished their Captives, That their Swords did but cut out work for their courtesy; Those that fell by their prowess, sprung up by their favours, as if they had struck them down, only to make them rebound the Higher. I hope your Highness as you are the Rival of their fame, will be no less of their virtues; the noblest Trophy that you can erect to your Honour is to raise the afflicted. And since you have subdued all opposition, it now remains that you attach yourself, and with acts of Mildness vaniqush your victory. It is not long since, my Lord, that you knocked off the Shackles from most of our party, and by a grand release did spread your clemency as large as your territories. Let not now proscriptions interrupt our Jubilé. Let not that your lenity be slandered as the Ambush of your further rigour. For the service of his Majesty (if it be objected) I am so far from excusing it, that I am ready to allege it in my vindication: I cannot conceive that my fidelity to my Prince should taint me in your opinion; I should rather expect it should recommend me to your favour; Had not we been faithful to our King, we could not have given ourselves to be so to your Highness; you had then trusted us gratis, whereas now we have our former Loyalty to vouch us. You see my Lord, how much I presume upon the greatness of your Spirit, that dare prevent my Indictment with so frank a Confession, especially in this, which I may so justly deny, that it is almost arrogancy in me to own it; for the truth is, I was not qualified enough to serve him; all that I could do, was to bear a part in his sufferings, and give myself up to be crushed with his fall; thus my charge is doubled (my obedience to my sovereign, and what is the result of that, my want offortune;) Now what ever reflections I have on the former, I am a true penitent for the latter; My Lord you see my crimes! As to my defence you bear it about you! I shall plead nothing in my justification, by your Highness, (which as it is the constant inmate of a valiant breast, If you graciously please to extend it to your Suppliant in taking me out of this withering durance,) your Highness will find that mercy will establish you more than power; though all the days of your life were as pregnant with victories, as your twice auspicious third of September.  
Your Highness humble, and submissive Petitioner. J. C.   

Printed for William Sheares.